The invention relates to a process for transmitting and evaluating advertising and information in toilet facilities.
The invention is furthermore related to a display arrangement for carrying out the method in a public urinal or toilet area.
Urinals are usually fastened in larger numbers alongside one another on the wall in toilet and public urinal facilities. Modem urinals are provided with automatic flushing capability. These are activated, with a time delay, when the user approaches. The control for activation of flushing with water is usually found above the urinal and is usually built into the wall. With waterless urinals, as they likewise have been offered for some time, water flushing is dispensed with, and therefore the corresponding devices and controls for triggering flushing are also absent.
Occasionally on walls in public toilet areas, advertising by poster, the effectiveness of which is nonetheless restricted because toilet areas are mostly quickly vacated again, and during the operation, the advertisement is either not visible, or cannot be observed, or the latter has been damaged by vandalism.
From DE-U1-29811821, an audiovisual information system for toilet facilities is known in which a display device in toilet spaces is activatable by sensor devices as a function of contact element or sensors. A disadvantage of this apparatus is that the display device and the sensor device are arranged independently of other apparatuses of the toilet facilities, and as additional equipment on a door or a walling bounding the space. The expense and the costs for installation are correspondingly high. DE-U1-29811821 indeed discloses the possibility of unilateral transmission of advertising or information from an audiovisual source through connection lines to video screens of the display device. A bilateral transmission of information or a bilateral communication is not provided.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,018, a device for diverting and absorbing odors in connection with a urinal is described. It contains an odor guide apparatus which can include a housing with odor-neutralizing material. The housing serves for diverting and/or absorbing odors, and can in addition be used as advertising space. The housing is mountable by means of a holder on the upper side of the urinal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,018 discloses the use of interchangeable advertising plates, but not the use of advertising facilities on which or from which commercials or information are transmittable. An evaluation of information on the observation of such advertising is likewise not provided.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,848, an advertising facility insertable into a urinal which bears an advertising message as a thermochromal image is described. This becomes visible by contact with warm urine and disappears again upon subsequent flushing with cold water. With such advertising facilities, the latitude for configuring the advertising message is very small. Moreover, such advertising facilities provide no evaluable information.
The object of the invention is to provide a method for transmitting and evaluating advertising and information in toilet facilities.
The object of the invention is furthermore the creation of a display arrangement with which a commercial or informational message can be transmitted to the user during his stay in the toilet.
These objects are accomplished by a method for transmitting and evaluating publicity and information in accordance with the features of patent claim 1 and through a display arrangement in accordance with the features of patent claim 4.
Through the arrangement of the display in the immediate field of vision, that is, in the upper region of the urinal, the wash basin or in a receptacle arranged above it the eyes of the user are necessarily directed toward it, and they absorb (consciously or unconsciously) over a sufficiently long time the advertising message or orgaizational communications of the building. By activating or turning the display on by the user of the toilet, the latter is actively led to look in that direction. In the simplest configuration of the invention, this is an-interchangeable-commercial message in word and/or image form which is installed beneath a preferably well cleanable transparent surface on or above the urinal or wash stand. By turning on background illumination, the advertising message is activated.
In a further advantageous configuration, stationary or moving images or films with or without sound can be transmitted with a video screen which are transferred either by a storage medium which is set up within the operation. In a wholly special embodiment, the advertising messages can be broadcast by cable, radio or Internet by a state or regional administration to displays in the branches, service areas etc. and in this way be continuously updated. The transmission of data within the business can take place though separate lines or over the electrical power grid mostly available in any case or radio.